Appearance - 8 | Aroma - 8 | Flavor - 8 | Texture - 8 | Overall - 7.5

Draught at Lord Hobo, 12/13/17.
Excellent clarity in this brassy-golden beer with a very gentle haze and small, off-white head atop showing moderate retention.
Classic BSA yeast character is prominent in the nose, showing white pepper, light clove and moderate amounts of apple and pear-like esters. Honey-caramel, not too strong, provides balance/backing and everything is clean and fairly snappy for its size; seemingly well-attenuated. Lightly spicy/herbal hop notes grace the finish with little/no alcohol and more malt depth emerging with warming/breathing (as well as more clove phenol).
In the mouth it shows good attenuation and a general level of dryness, yet with light touches of sticky honey-caramel which help balance the clove-white pepper character. Very spicy, with lightly bready malts, as well. Alcohol is well-concealed and apple and pear esters linger on the finish alongside the malt and phenols. Very traditional, classic Duvel-esque strong golden. Nothing flashy, of course, but very well-executed.